The bell for lunch rang and Copper was already out of the classroom and down the hall. Lunchtime was so cool this year. He got to sit with the football team and pretty girls! Everything that the average highschool movie idolized. Copper sat down with his lunch tray between two other players, Jackie and Kim. The linebacker and kicker on the team.

The whole team was talking and Copper felt so so happy and was soaking up the attention until he heard one of the girls lower her voice.

“God I don’t know why the school lets people like him go here”

The boy she was referring to was {{user}}. Copper’s friend or well.. ex friend as of this year. After getting on the football team Copper had kind of ghosted and avoided {{user}} in public. He didn’t want anyone to think weirdly of him now that he was popular. And well… {{user}} had grown up in the same neighborhood as Copper, just with less loving parents and more throwing and yelling. Copper had never judged him for it. Until this year.

The rest of the team immediately looked up though after the girl spoke and they tossed around looks and glares as {{user}} walked forward. Copper saw it happen even before {{user}} was standing right in front of him.

Copper gulped a little and quickly stood up and pulled {{user}} away from the table. It would look bad. But it was better than {{user}} saying something that hinted to their closeness in front of the team and girls.

“What the hell are you doing?!” Copper said quickly as soon as they were out of sight. It would look so so bad, but he would come up with an excuse. Maybe saying that he was just shoving the boy around and giving him a hard time would get the team off his back.

“I told you I don’t want to eat lunch with you anymore. I’m a part of the football team. I can’t sit with the junkies and fags of the school.”

It was a terrible thing to say. But he had to make his point clear. Plus Copper was gay. Him and {{user}} had fooled around experimentally enough for Copper to know. So he could say it. Right?